Agenda item

Agreed the key themes and approach for developing the council’s Recovery Plan, as outlined in section 3 and 4 of the report.

The Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive introduced a report that set out the high-level proposals for SBC’s Recovery Plan.

The Leader highlighted that this was the first-stage of the plan and set out the approach and key themes.  It was recognised that the Council faced very significant challenges to address the scale of the financial and corporate leadership failures over several years, and the Leader stated that Members took their share responsibility for both the failings and the commitment to resolve the problems the Council faced.

A robust recovery plan was required to provide a focus for the Council’s the recovery and improvement plans and effectively implement the Directions issued by the Secretary of State.  The plan was linked to the functional capability assessments and leadership reports elsewhere on the Cabinet agenda.

The Chief Executive summarised the key themes of the recovery plan which were:

·  Leadership and culture

·  Financial recovery and onward sustainability

·  Business planning and performance management

·  Governance

·  Organisational capability, capacity and resilience

·  Technological capability, capacity and resilience

·  Citizen service standards and performance

Lead Members welcomed the work carried out to date on the Recovery Plan and emphasised their collective commitment to take the necessary steps to put in place and implement a recovery and improvement plan.  The importance of the plan being built on data and evidence, feedback and working with partners was particularly welcomed.  It would be important to ensure the plan was a ‘living document’ and continue to evolve as part of the Council’s continuous improvement over the coming years.  Several Members highlighted that residents needs should be at the centre of the plan and engagement with them was crucial.

The Cabinet agreed that improving organisational cultures and behaviours, including Member-Officer relations was important.  Constructive and well informed challenge would improve decision making and this would require good governance processes, such as timely and high quality reports to Members.  The role of the Overview & Scrutiny function and performance management were highlighted as Members priorities for the improvement plan.

Speaking under Rule 30, Councillor Gahir expressed support for the approach being taken and concurred with the comments of Cabinet Members to ensure that scrutiny was strengthened as it had a vital role to play in the improvement journey.

At the conclusion of the discussion, the Cabinet agreed the first stage recovery plan.

Resolved –  That the key themes and approach for developing the council’s Recovery Plan, as outlined in section 3 and 4 of the report be agreed.